Financial Freedom
What is money?
Woolf argues that women need this resource to write fiction
Who is Jane Austen?
19th-century novelist, praised by Woolf, published Pride and Prejudice and faced limitations throughout her life.
Who is Judith Shakespeare?
Virginia Woolf invents this fictional character to illustrate the struggles of women in literature.
What is being a wife/mother?
Historically, women were discouraged from writing and publishing because they were expected to focus on this domestic role.
What is earning their own money?
Woolf urges women to pursue this financial goal to secure the freedom to write.
According to Woolf, women historically lacked financial independence because they were expected to do this unpaid work.
Who is Charlotte Brontë?
Woolf admired this Victorian writer for her ability to transcend gender constraints while using a male pseudonym to publish Jane Eyre.
What is societal restriction/lack of education?
Woolf imagines Judith Shakespeare possessing the same talent as her brother, but she faces this obstacle that prevents her from writing.
What are money and a Room Of One's Own?
Woolf argues that women needed these two basic conditions in order to write freely.
What is their own experiences?
She argues that women must reclaim their literary tradition by writing about this, rather than conforming to male-dominated narratives.
What is $500?
In A Room of One's Own, Woolf quantifies financial freedom, stating that a woman needs this much income per year to write.
Who is George Eliot?
Woolf critiques this author of Middlemarch for her lack of joy in writing, despite her intellectual depth.
What is suicide?
Judith Shakespeare attempts to pursue her literary ambitions but ultimately meets this tragic fate.
What is Oxford/Cambridge?
Woolf describes the exclusion of women from this prestigious university institution, limiting their access to intellectual resources.
What is write?
Woolf sees literature as the pathway to progress, insisting that women must do this with confidence and persistence.
What are endowments/inheritance from universities?
Woolf connects financial independence to literary success, contrasting women's struggles with the advantage enjoyed by male writers funded by this common university tradition.
Who is Dorothy Wordsworth?
According to Woolf, this woman poet of the Romantic era displayed brilliance but was overshadowed by her male counterparts, such as her brother William.
What are gender norms and lack of financial independence?
Through Judith Shakespeare, Woolf argues that women writers in the Elizabethan era were discouraged because of these two systemic barriers.
What is the Angel in the House?
She criticizes this 19th-century literary convention for shaping how women were portrayed in fiction, often leading to their stories being centered on romance and domesticity.
What is write and publish?
In her closing argument, Woolf asserts that if Shakespeare's sister had lived today, she would have done this rather than been forgotten.
What is confidence?
Woolf argues that financial independence creates intellectual freedom, but she also acknowledges that money alone is not enough. She says women must also possess this intangible quality to truly thrive as writers.
What are time and financial independence?
Woolf argues that women's literary history lacks great tragedies because female writers have historically been deprived of two essential resources.
What is systemic inequality?
Woolf's story of Judith Shakespeare is a metaphor illustrating the historical erasure of female writers, connecting their absence in literature to this broader societal issue.
What is intellectual freedom/confidence?
Woolf contends that historical women writers often lacked this essential creative element, which male writers had in abundance due to societal privilege.
What is intellectual freedom?
Woolf believes that true literary equality will only come when women possess both money and this fundamental necessity.